LIVE Garden Report: Celtics vs Sixers Postgame Show on CLNS

always has to be a shot at some point. I know they’re never clean. They have to run. That’s the only shot they have. They do it for 82 games. We’re about to find out. He already has shown what he’s capable of. Did surprise me. I thought we were going to hang in there. This makes me think that we do need to be humble. I actually think you’re the only one who deserved that beating. New open, new season, new Celtics team. New Celtics team. This is not the Celtics I remember from last year, the year before. Where did they go? Oh, that’s right. Atlanta team. The Celtics lose to an underman Philly squad at home, giving up 42 points. 42 points in the fourth quarter. um falling 117 116 um in what might be a snapshot of things to come uh Shirrod and again we’ll get into it. It’s not all bad. Um it’s just there’s not a lot of margin for error with this team. Uh there’s certain things that they’re just not going to be able to do at a high level. Um but I guarantee and I’ll tell you right now that this is going to be a we got good looks sort of uh game for Joe. And there’s an absolute shooting variance to be factored in here. I would say on the positive side, they’re able to get shots. Uh, and you know, uh, and they were able to get some decent shots and some good looks. Um, but they shot 11 from 40, three from three. Um, which is not great. They got to the free throw line 26 times. That’s not bad at all. No, 17, I think, in the third, I think. Something like that. Yeah. And then in that third quarter, exactly when they kind of looked like they had dropped the hammer and put the game away. Um, I know people are going to be looking at the um last couple of possessions and we’ll certainly talk about those and scrutinize those a little bit. Um, and you know, we’ll we’ll be joined by Jimmy Tuscano. We’ll be joined by Bobby Manning. We’ll be joined by Noah Dell. We’ll hear from Joe Mazul at the podium. Uh, it’s the first of many uh garden reports here. Um, so we’re going to we’ll do the whole thing. Well, we’re going to do it all. First off, we want to let you know uh Garden Report brought to you in uh in part by our pals over at Prize Pix. Download that Prize Pick app. Use code CLNS. Get 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Again, we’re talking about the number one daily fantasy sports app in all of North America. Download the Prize Picks app. Coach CLNS, get 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineups. And also, you’re hungry. I’m hungry. We’re going to get ourselves some steaks over at Omaha Stakes. Yeah, it’s a Celtics show, but we’re using the code Patriots. When you go to omahastakessakes.com, use that code Patriots. We’re looking at a 50% off sitewide sale in addition to $35 off when you use the code Patriots at checkout. Omaha Stakes, go check it out right now. Uh, as for the game itself, Sherrod, what jumps out to you here? And again, as I said, there’s going to be a lot for us to talk about and dissect uh about this game. But again, there you’re right, John, there’s a lot that I liked about what they did to tonight. But to me, the thing that jumps out is the ending. Uh, we have established, well established that this is Jaylen Brown’s team. And in the absolute most critical moment, is Joe to the podium? The podium already. We’ll get to it. 19 points um after picking after uh taking a seven-point lead. What did you see in that stretch that that led to that? I think there was a couple transition uh baskets that we gave up either from uh just not crashing through the right lane or or them getting out ahead of us and getting that gave up a offensive rebound three and then uh you know Maxi dribbles under the basket, hits Barlo in the corner, Barlo hits the Grimes, he gets a catch and shoot three from there. So uh just you know just a breakdown in some of our defensive stuff and you know we just have to be better. Is there, you know, obviously you just came out of the preseason and there timing issues? Is there chemistry issues? Things that kind of lead to maybe, you know, you had a few u illegal screens in there. Is that is just like a timing thing of of of um Yeah, I I think I don’t know. Yeah, I mean, obviously you’re looking at uh the relationship between the ball handler and the and the fiveman and and setting up screens and whatnot, but I mean, those are going to happen the entire season just with the physicality of of the play and trying to set screens. And so yeah, that’s not it’s not like the rustiness of of the first game. It’s just something that we have to continue to be great at, but a couple of those are going to happen because of the physicality of the game. Joe, what were you looking for on the last possession? Two looks for Payton there. What were you looking for? Uh yeah, just looking to get the ball into our playmakaker hands and make a play. So we got the ball into the paint. Um you know, got a decent look and you know, it’s all you could do is get it to those guys and and you know, they gave us a chance to win. What was your takeaway from the offense? the way it function in this one as guys settle in the new roles and things like that. Uh yeah, I mean I thought the pace of which we played was decent. I thought our our spacing was was relatively decent there. Uh just have to continue to to create advantages, but you know for the first game I thought it was pretty good. Joe, it felt like in the third quarter your guys’ pace really worked a lot. Like you got a lot of transition opportunities and you’ve talked about the relationship between that and your defense. It was an 18-point quarter for Philly. Was there a shift in that in the fourth quarter that you noticed that led to to their big quarter or was it, you know, other stuff on defense? I mean, if you give up 42, you probably give up a a little bit of everything, you know. I think uh lost Maxi on a couple pick and rolls where uh we went under instead of chasing him over, getting him inside three, again, few transition opportunities on whether it was a live ball turnover or not the byproduct of not getting an offensive rebound and then uh offensive rebound threes and then, you know, some shot making by some of those guys. So, when you give up that many, it’s probably a little bit of everything. Uh but you know, we just got to clean up some of those things. Joe, uh just curious what your thoughts were with uh Jaylen Brown tonight. It didn’t look like he maybe had his full explosiveness and also it seemed like he did embrace the role of being a playmaker. Uh I mean, I thought he I thought he had his explosiveness. I thought he played well. I thought he gave us uh started started the game on Embiid. Uh gave the game what we required. Uh yeah, I mean I think he’ll continue to get better and better, but I thought he played well balanced basketball on both ends of the floor. Gary, Joe, what do you take take away from this one? I mean, the last four minutes seem to be kind of where everything went haywire and Yeah, I mean, you take that again, it just goes back to the process of winning. It doesn’t matter process. No, transition opportunities in the first half. They had 18 points. I would say uh 40 to 50% of Maxi’s points came in transition and at the free throw line. And so, uh, he’s great at that, but you have to be able to do that. And it’s just the details, you know, it’s the transition defense, it’s the timely offensive rebounds, uh it’s the execution, just all those things that go into winning and their habits that you just have to continue to fight for. When I mean, Ed Combmes is his first NBA game. He scores 36. I mean, how is how difficult is it scouting for a guy who’s never played and then you don’t expect him to I mean, that’s just kind of out of the blue. Yeah, I mean, he’s obviously a really good player. um you know and again he scored uh hit five threes to the free throw line a little bit but got a lot in transition and uh he’s just a good player. So uh it’s a credit to them and and you know when we play them then we have to be better at uh defending them. Joe, you guys were able to force 13 turnovers the first three quarters just one in the fourth. What went what went different there? I mean again some of that uh we have to be more active uh in our shift altitude. We have to just keep that uh keep that activity going. Uh, like you said, one one turnover in the fourth. We would just have to be more active than that. Have to be able to make more plays than that. Joe, what did you see at both ends of the floor from that three guard lineup with Anthony, Peyton, and Derek tonight? Uh, good speed, good pace. I thought we really generated a lot of cross matches when they were able to get out there. I thought they both did a good job of finding uh opportunities for themselves, but also creating. Um, you know, I think as they start to understand spacing and learning there, uh, I think at the end we just had a miscommunication on a on a late game action, but that’s just them, uh, having an understanding of that. But I like the pace that they play with, like the spacing that they had and having three guys that can attack the paint and penetrate and finish or kick is, you know, it’s going to be good for us. Couple questions, were you encouraged with what you saw from Nimi today? Yeah, I mean, listen, he’s got it in him to to be good for us and and uh, he did some really good things. The standards high for him. I thought he answered the call and he just has to continue to get better and better. Um, and then Xavier Tilman also played a significant role in the front court. What did you kind of make of his performance? Yeah, I mean his defense uh his ability to to defend and and when they went zone, he said some good screens first, got us some advantages on the offensive end, had some good possessions uh you know on Embiid and you know when he’s open, he’s just got to have the confidence to continue to shoot it. Thank you. And that is Joe Missoula wrapping up his postgame press conference. Uh a little bit of humble Joe right now. He didn’t get into uh there wasn’t a lot of uh uh you know back and forth uh with the media there. Uh didn’t get snippy or short on anything. kind of played it straight, answered all of the questions because again I do think um you know he like probably a lot of us recognize Sherrod that this could be a bit of a roller coaster of a season here and um you know he’s got to work through uh the type of team that he has uh and figure out exactly what he has. And so I guess I promised Noah in pregame that I would not I promised damn it that I would not overreact one way or another. Meaning you know guys like me and Jimmy are concerned about the team. Um and you know other people are a little more bullish just where they’re going to be. So I said I wasn’t going to overreact to as long as they wouldn’t overreact to a win either. Um play it down the middle. However, and this isn’t a victory lap or anything, I do think some of the things you’re worried about showed a little. Um, and that’s kind of where it’s going to come down to is I do feel like the Celtics are going to find themselves in a lot of 5050 games, you know, and I wrote this on the on the bold predictions and you don’t necessarily know how know how those are going to go because it’s not we’re out of we’re out of this mold of if if we play our best game, we win, you know, and it’s beyond just if we just execute, we do this, the team has limitations. They’re going to struggle defending all year long. They really are. Um, they’re going to allow open shooters. are going to do a lot of different things here. Um, and you know, that’s how it’s going to be. The bigs are going to be a continued issue. Bench scoring is going to be a continued issue um, here. And that’s just kind of where they’re at. And all that being said, they still found themselves in, you know, with a with a punch, you know, 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. Um, it just kind of, you know, pissed away. So, I will say the things you’re concerned about, and again, Garza goes out with a concussion there, but like May not Yeah. revelation in the preseason. What’s he going to do in the regular season? Run around, give you some energy, but he’s not going to score. He’s not, you know, he’s going to be a tough guy to trust. It’s going to always be a little bit shaky offensively when they’re out there. You talked about that three guard lineup there. That’s fine. The one thing that keeps coming up in the chat that I want to bring up, and I’m curious your impressions here, was uh you know, uh Jaylen Brown. Um the the the question was asked very matterof factly. Jaylen didn’t look like his explosive self. A lot of people in the chat saying the same thing. A lot of people in my Twitter mentions are saying the same thing. I personally I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. I didn’t think he looked very explosive in the preseason either, but also he could have just been ramping it up and he looked like he he was he wasn’t even really he didn’t break a sweat uh in the preseason there. But it is the regular season and we might still be in a slow ramp up here. But he didn’t look like um explosive Jaylen to me. I didn’t think he played a bad game, but that’s a part of his game that you you need and you want to see. Um, do you agree with that assessment? Because again, a lot of people are saying that. Yeah, I I I I think Jaylen had what we would call an average Jaylen Brown game. Uh, he was a little bit more efficient than he normally is and and he passed a little bit more, but overall, this is pretty much what Jaylen going to is going to get you most nights. 256 and four. 255 and five. That’s who he is. But the problem with that is this. This team can’t have the average Jaylen. They’re not going to win with average Jaylen because average Jaylen was a great number two to Tatum, but average Jaylen is going to have many nights like this where if he’s having an average night, they’re going to lose by one, two, three, four possessions. They need him to be above average night in and night out. And it just didn’t happen tonight. And that doesn’t don’t take that as if I’m saying he’s the reason they lost because he’s not. But when you’re the best player on the team and you’re undisputed best player on the team, you got to step your game and elevate it up. Uh and that and that’s the thing. And that yeah, the mention about his hamstring, I I absolutely think that’s a concern, especially when you look around the league and in other sports where guys who have hamstring injuries, they usually miss some time. Uh whether it’s a week or two here or or longer than that. And you’re right though, for Jaylen having already had hamstring issues, it’s hard for me to imagine that there isn’t a part of him from just a mental standpoint that’s a little bit concerned about that and is maybe trying to test it out a little bit with as opposed to just playing his normal game. That being said, he’s so good that he can get you 25 points, shoot 50% from the field, knock down a couple threes, and it still come away with him being an average Jaylen Brown game. They can’t do average. He can’t be average for this team to win. Yeah. And that’s so that’s another kind of um I think big uh factor uh for in in terms of me being a little bit concerned with how a lot of these games will go. It’s it’s that margin for error. Um you can’t and I you didn’t have a bad Jaylen Brown game. You didn’t have a bad Derek White game. Derek White didn’t shoot well in the first half. He turned it on a little bit later. Um, but one of the beauties of of that last team, you know, over the over the course of the last two seasons was you could win games all the not only you could, you did win games all the time with Tatum or Tatum and Brown having off nights because you had so many other people to pick up the slack. You don’t really have that here. And again, yeah, you might still get some big Pritchard games in there, too. Uh, you know, Simons is capable of going off uh, you know, forever, but um, there’s a lot less margin for error there where whether it’s an injury, a load management game, or just an off night. It’s harder to survive. You know, against a good team, it’s going to be harder. You’re going to need a games from everybody. And against these mid teams, like I said, is it really is a bit of a a tossup. My concern with the entire lineup is everybody’s punching a little bit above their weight class. You know, Pritchard’s being thrown in with the starters and being asked to take on the load that that, you know, entails. And he’s never actually been terrific at that. Um, so that’s something I’m a little worried about. Sam Hower to me is a guy that is, you know, spotty. Um, not necessarily consistent enough to rely on for, you know, a lot of minutes. and he was, you know, a bit of a non-factor here. And then everybody at the bench, I feel like everybody’s playing a little bit up from where they need to. And so, you’re going to be asking a lot of people on a nightly basis. Uh, and that’s kind of where uh, you know, where it falls. And, you know, I’m going to have to I’ll have to see something different in order to feel different, you know. But like I what I don’t want to get into is my biggest fear is that you know Garza Mayot and Bruce all stink. Baylor Shyman and George Baylor Shman are are are have been those guys. How bad is that? You pulled three minimum salary guys off the bench who’ve supplanted your two most recent draft picks in the rotation. That’s not a good sign at all. In in in step back or tanky season, Sherrod, you’re always talking about let’s let the kids play, but the Oh, no. That’s not what’s happening here. The kids the kids are out of the rotation. That was tough. And Ugo came in for like 10 seconds and he and he went out too. That’s not great. I mean, Ugo is fine. He’s young. I mean, under normal circumstances, if it was last year’s team, you’d be like, “Go to Spain, young man. We’ll see you in a year. So, he’s here because he has to be. But, o, you know, and I think you I think you got to force him go into the lineup sooner than later because you’re going to need the athleticism. Uh, for sure. Uh, Jimmy Tusano joining. Uh, give us a thumbs up, Jimmy, when you think you’re good. Even when Jimmy thinks he’s good, he’s not necessarily. Not. Yeah, that that’s I’m a little bit worried about it. Always. Always. He might think he’s good. I saw the second coming of Jimmy you guys had on the pregame show with a Tatum jersey. Little little Jimmy. Oh, did you see little Jimmy on the pregame show? I did. That poor kid. That poor kid was devastated. Found out it was it wasn’t t when it was He’s like, “Is this going to be on TV?” I’m like, “Nah, we don’t do TV, you know. That’s not that’s not that’s not that’s not here.” No. So, uh, Jimmy, what do you think? You want to come on? Can Jimmy come out and play? No, he’s still he’s still uh still there. Little Jimmy was a star. Yeah, for whoever was watching that preview. Yeah, he was cool. That was very cool. That was fun doing that, actually. Yeah. As Gino sighting, that was that was interesting. I’ve talked with him before, but I never had a conversation that lasted more than 8 seconds. Those guys love it. They all People are coming up to Bobby and Noah all and they’re like, “Hey, we like your work. We like your work.” And then they look at me and they’re like, “I know who you are. God.” Yeah, I don’t really like you. I’m like, no, it’s fine. I know you, too, but I don’t really like you. Like, I I Nobody has to like it. It’s fine. No. Um, it’s fine. I’m not I’m not crapping on Jaylen Brown. I actually thought he had a relatively efficient game. I don’t think he forced things. Um, I thought um certain he had a little stretch stretch there where he made some good passes um there. I mean, you know, you know, he he he didn’t make it all about him uh there uh at all. He wasn’t doing the head down, force the action dribble into whatever. Tried to get other people involved. Had a little stint in the fourth quarter where he, you know, was doing his thing. I just I’m just looking physically and again, he could still be ramping it up from the uh from the from the hamstring injury. Let’s bring in big Jimmy Tusano. We saw little Jimmy on the pregame show. We got Big Jimmy right now. Jimmy was down there. Jimmy was down there. Yeah, it was a wild a wild John sighting down at the uh down at the uh the garden. I went down. John was down there. Bobby and Noah were were were holding it down. I made an appearance, a brief one. I I I said my piece and um I I I got to say this what I said in the pregame show. I’ll repeat here. We posted our bold predictions on on Instagram on the CLNS Celtics Instagram account, which by the way is an unbelievable uh Instagram account. If you’re not following it, you’re really missing out because the guys, the producers do a great job with content, not just show content, but they’ve got a lot of access pictures, videos, and things like that that you guys should definitely check out. But they posted our bold predictions, guys, our our record predictions. And I took a little bit of heat on there, I think, for my record. And and it looked like the Celtics fans were stunned that we weren’t as confident as as some of they are. some of them are. Unfortunately, I don’t feel any any any better about things. I think my prediction of them missing the playoffs after watch and again it’s one game. I don’t want to jump off a cliff here, but some of the things that I was concerned about, I did see in real time. I was at the game watching it. Um, and I had some concerns. Uh, for for sure I had some concerns. I thought there were some good good things that Jaylen Brown did out there. I thought that he had good court vision tonight. And I thought he made some good passes and I thought Kada and him had a little bit of a connection going on before Kada fouled out of the game, but I felt like he was I don’t want to say slow, but I did feel like he was everybody’s kind of saying that. Everybody’s been saying it. Kind of cruising out there and not like exploding. And that I will say this. I don’t know if it’s the hamstring or what, but I will say on that play that he I don’t know what was going on in his mind, but he just like thought he was going to just dunk like flatfooted and he just jumped straight up and it ended up getting a foul call. Originally, they said it was going to be Pistons ball, but they Joe challenged it and it went to the uh it went back to the Celtics way, but he was grabbing at that hamstring a little bit after that play. I don’t know if the cameras caught it, but I was watching it and um just something to be on the lookout for. He may have been playing, you know, Jaylen Brown’s not going to want to miss opening night, right? So, home opener with everything going on, he’s going to want to play. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing through a little bit of pain tonight. Hopefully, it’s not anything that he made worse and it’s not going to linger on too too long. But, I did sense a little bit of him not being fullon Jaylen Brown. And ultimately, that was one of the reasons why the Celis came up short because him and White clearly are the one and two guys in the team. I thought Pery had a tough game. The shots were not falling for the Celtics. Three-point shots were were they they were relatively cold, I think, for the most part. And I haven’t checked the the team stats actually since I got back from the game, but just based on what I was seeing, it looked like they were missing some open ones. And down the stretch, the players that looked like they were taking over and taking control were in Sixers jerseys. Maxi took the ball and at one point I think he hit three straight threes and he just looked like he was going to will his team back in some capacity even though the Celtics would go up seven and go up nine or whatever it was. Sixers were like that bench looked confident. Maxi was running the show as soon as Embiid left the game. Man, if he doesn’t step foot on the on the court for the Sixers again, that might be a good thing based on what I saw out of him tonight. But him and Edgecomb, historically good performance by VJ Edgecombs, the most points in a rookie debut since 1959, Will Chamberlain. And I’ll tell you what, it looked like it. The second he stepped foot on that court shot. I’m sure you guys saw it, too. He was lights out. I know there’s people in the people at the game being like, “Wait a second. Who is this guy?” like you know you know obviously he’s a rookie and if unless you’re really up on things you you’re watching a game not really up to speed on all the rookies but he stepped foot in that court looked like he’d been playing in the league for years. No the only Yeah. The only moment in a game where he looked like a rookie was when he missed those free the free throws. Yeah. That was right. That was it. And I mean and the thing that impressed me with him was that he had a he had a high level of diversity to his game. He was knocking down the three ball. He was finishing at the rim. He was getting pretty much wherever he wanted to spot-wise and making the shots that he felt confident in making. And that that was the thing about him. At no point did he look shook or even rattled or just any I mean, he looked like a guy that had been in the league for like a good six, seven years. Uh the first game two free throws free throws, right? So, but there’s some guys in our on the Celtics that might miss similar free throws, John. I’m not going to name names because we’re not going to we’re not going to do that. But there’s been some Celtics stars that have been known to miss a free throw, too. No, Jimmy, the point that you made earlier about, you know, how, you know, this game brought a lot of your concerns to life. Uh, I thought the Celtics did that and yet still I thought found a way to almost like kind of threecart monty ass and so that you didn’t really see what was bad because they were going to find a way to win because when they were up by 11 in the fourth quarter, I’m thinking this will be a great win for them because they really didn’t play that great and yet they’re going to find a way to win this game. And as the league started to shrink, you became, okay, now reality is set in. They really haven’t played that good. Philly knows they haven’t played that good. And Philly is just going to s who which team is better at executing down the stretch. And clearly the Sixers were at both ends of the floor. Uh, and that sequence at the very end where you got two cracks to win the game and your best player does not get a shot off. Doesn’t even I don’t think Jaylen didn’t touch the ball, I don’t think, on either one of those last two offensive possessions. No, the inbounds. Yeah, I just went to Pritchard. One of them, one of them I thought UB did a good job. Uh the other he kind of disappeared to the corner and Pritchard um you know, just put his head down and went um and it just didn’t result in anything. I don’t have a I don’t have a problem with the choice. You know, to me it’s like look, you got guys there like Pton Pritchard can score, Derek White can score, Jaylen Brock, I don’t give a crap that end up with Pritchard. I that that to me is not an issue. Um he just he’s a little guy and he’s trying to get into the paint and it was difficult, you know, like that’s that’s a game with like less than five seconds to play and you need a point to tie or two to win. If he’s flying off a screen and he catches and he tries to knock down a, you know, or he has space and he can, you know, beat a guy off the dribble, but he’s just driving into into the trees there. That was a little bit tough. So, I don’t know about the choice, but I Well, that that was the issue that I had. The fact that he had the ball in his hands, that didn’t bother me. the fact that he was looking to finish at the rim did bother me. Uh cuz I just don’t think that’s what you’re going to do in that situation. And you’re not going to get the foul even if you do get fouled. So I I just I had my issue was with just the decision to try to finish that way. And on one of the drives he had uh Sam Hower in the wing wide open uh because the defense had collapsed on him. So again, not again, there’s so many other things that they did wrong that put them in that predicament, but certainly that last nine plus seconds was just not good basketball on the Celtics part. It wasn’t. And it’s going to be interesting because the last couple years the Celtics haven’t found themselves in a lot of situations like that, right? They they their games their w a lot of their wins came, you know, pretty comfortably, right? So you didn’t have a lot of that crunch time execution that you needed to go to. And then and when you did, the whole world knew you were going to Jason Tatum. So this is completely un uncharted territory for this team this year. When they are in close, even when they are in close games, it’s still going to look completely different than it did in past seasons because the guy that you always went to isn’t an option. So they went to Pritcher tonight. I think you’re going to see a lot of I hope you’re going to see a lot of different looks and Joe’s gonna have to get creative. And this is when coaching does come into play. And you some of you guys have Joe as the coach of the year. Well, I’ll tell you what, that could possibly be true, but he’s going to be able to create that destiny because he’s going to have to get creative this year for them to win games. He’s going to have to reach into his bag of tricks. Coaching staff’s going to have to do those things to find ways to win, find ways to close teams out. The Sixers are, by the way, everybody, not seen to be a playoff team this year, right? Is that accurate? So, I was gonna spend a great deal of time had the Celtics won uh just just pissing on the Sixers grave because uh you know, one thing one thing you can feel good about is not good. I I don’t wish injuries and stuff on anybody, but I mean, you’re looking at a team that was, you know, a competitor and this and that. And I mean, Joel Embiid is beyond cooked. He He’s been cooked since the Olympics. Um you know, he’s cooked. I mean, he doesn’t he doesn’t play late. He’s not out there. And they’re much better when he’s not on the floor. I mean, I I tweeted this as well. Between Edgecom, Maxi, and McCain, you’ve got a nice little core there, but you got to get out of the Paul George and Joel Embiid business because that’s not great. But I was going to say this team’s a me the Sixers are a mess. Those two young kids are great, but with them being cooked right now, they’re not going anywhere. And this is kind of the worry is again, this is not a great team. and and and and they’re playing your full lineup at to a standstill, you know, on your home court. And they’re they’re they they don’t even have two of their granted, Paul George isn’t a bad player. He’s just a player you don’t expect is going to be able to complete a season, but obviously when he’s out there, they’re better. When McCain is out there, they’re better. So, this is a team when they’ve got all of their horses is better than you. And it’s a team most people most people in Celtics land think the Celtics are comfortably ahead of and they’re not. And this is kind of mine and Jimmy’s point is they’re not really comfortable ahead comfortably ahead of many teams on paper. Not so much so that they can walk into a building and just win because they’re the Celtics. They can beat and should beat some teams and could easily win a lot of games against, you know, this, you know, again, this is huge swath of teams in the middle of the Eastern Conference, you know, who aren’t great. Um, but they have to show up and play hard. They’re not No be given. Yeah. And Jimmy’s Yeah. Go ahead, Sh. No, I was just going to say they don’t have the luxury of playing a good quarter or good quarter and a half and expect to win. They can’t do that anymore. uh they don’t have that margin uh for for mediocrity anymore. Uh they’ve got to play good two, two and a half, three quarters just to compete. Forget about winning, just to be able to compete. And I thought tonight they played Philly, I thought for the most part relatively even. Even though they were winning, you know, in the second half, I I still thought overall they were pretty much neck andneck with Philly. And they just they you can’t do that uh and expect to win games. As far as Joel Embiid, he might as well change his name to Jel and B because there’s no O or D in his game anymore. No, Sherrod, you toast. He’s already dead. You have to kill him. The problem for Philly is that you can’t play him because he can’t help you. And you can’t not play him because you can’t move him. So, you’re you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t if you’re Philly. uh this I mean Tilman looked way more athletic than Tilman is and it’s it has very little to do I think his health and more to do with the fact that it was Joel Embiid out there who was trying to guard him both he’s also he he looks he looks much better but also he’s better but damn not as good as he I mean he I mean there was he beat Embiid down the floor and had a layup dude it’s sad there was a time there was a time where Embiid was one of the most electric players in the league to watch. And it’s just it’s I don’t want to I don’t want to go too long on ripping the dude because it sucks because it’s about injuries, you know, and it’s just like what what do you even say? He’s been dealing with this chronic knee injuries basically throughout his career, even before he entered the league. That was the league. Yeah. Right. So, it sucks. You know, you hate to see a great player’s career kind of fall short, right? So, but yeah, that that’s a Sixers problem. So, Celtics have their own issues. Sixers have their own issues. I will say if you’re a Sixers fan, you’re feeling pretty good tonight. You you you got an unbelievable rookie in in Edgecomb. And so that’s something they can at least build off of. And I’m not going to get into it tonight, but that’s the benefit of being really really bad is watching VJ Edgecomb uh do what he did tonight. So that’s what I was going to set you up for, Jimmy, is like for all of those, you know, anti-tankers. And again, it’s game one. I’m not I’m not doing this every game. I promise you. We can’t. But again, what what can a VJ Edgecomb do for you? What can a VJ Edgecom added to Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown and Derek White do for you? A freaking lot, man. A lot more than Baylor Shyman and whoever else on the bench you want to talk about. That’s the saddest part of tonight. The saddest part of tonight, and we saw it coming, is that the your two most recent draft picks are unplayable on this team. That’s crazy to me. Well, you go aside who also didn’t play. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s Let’s let of our bold predictions. I I’m basically I nailed my Baylor Shyman one, you know, the the the the build the dog house and sit in it. That’s where he lives. He lives he lives in a doghouse on the bench. Yeah, he he didn’t even get the pump fake call that Yugo got tonight. Yugo got called up to go in and then Joe yanked him back, which was kind of tough for everybody to see, but at least he was on Joe’s mind for like 10 seconds. I don’t know if he even saw Shyman on the bench tonight. No, no, he probably didn’t. Anyway, uh real quick, we’re going to get back into it. We’ll get back out to the podium. Uh which I’ve got my own problem there, but I’ll tell you guys about it later. You don’t want to listen to me gripe about podiums, but I will a little. We do want to tell you a little bit more about our pals over at Prize Picks. And again, you know by now this episode, all the episodes brought to you by Prize Pick. You and I and Jimmy and Sherrod, we make decisions every day. But on Prize Picks, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss the excitement this season. Whatever season you’re in, we’re talking football, basketball, hockey, Perfect Storm coming Monday. All four sports at once. I love that. I love this time of year. Prize picks simple to play more or less on two to six player stat projections. If you get your picks right, you could cash in. Prize Pix offers injury reboots. So, if you had a Garza uh situation in your lineup, you get that refunded if he leaves the game. That’s totally fine. Prize Pix also mentally hopefully you didn’t. That means you can still cash out if your lineup isn’t perfect. So, download that app today. Use code CLNS. Get 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Once again, code cls, get 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. As we said, the number one daily fantasy sports app in all of North America. Prize picks. It is good to be right. Uh, back to us. And one other thing I’m going to beef about. Old man yells at Cloud Joe Mazula. Oh, look at my timing. You see the heads in the way there? Do you know why there are heads in the way? Because after Joe beat the hell out of the media, he decided to do this we’re equals thing and they lowered the podium and now we can’t shoot it. Well, why don’t we get on a Now we get on the pedestal. We come in. We get up there. Put up. That was It was impressive. Um, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen uh someone have that in their debut, but um they haven’t. Derek, you guys gave up or you only allowed 18 in the third quarter, 42 for them in the fourth quarter. What changed from one quarter to another for you guys? I mean, I think uh obviously they they made some shots there in the fourth quarter. Um but like just the our activity in the third quarter is kind of how how we have to play that whole the for 48 minutes. Um so we got to try to find whatever we did in that third quarter for 48 minutes. But um obviously you see what we did wrong in the in the fourth there cuz that’s a lot of points. Yeah. Derek just uh over here on that on that final possession um you know neither you or Jaylen could get the ball there. Did you guys though get the looks that you wanted those two times or did Philadelphia defend that in a way where you couldn’t execute the play you’re trying to execute? Yeah, I think I mean you’re trying to get to JB. I think they did a good job of uh kind of denying him. Um and then I mean Pete came to the ball and you obviously trust P to in those situations a lot. So um I mean I wouldn’t change change much. Derek, you’ve got different guys in different roles and guys in expanded roles in those last few minutes. Do you have to play through some of those to to experience some of those for some of the guys on the floor to get to a point where everybody kind of knows what they’re supposed to do and who they’re supposed to be in those in those scenarios? Yeah, for sure. Um I mean it’s hard to duplicate that in practice. Um, and so I feel like the last couple years we we knew exactly what we were trying to get to. And so it’s going to be a little bit different this year. Um, and so, um, I mean, it’d be good to to learn from this game and, uh, see what we did well, what we didn’t do well, and kind of what actions we want to get into. So, um, I mean, the best way to to learn from it is to go through it. So, there’ be a lot that we can learn from. John back. Derek, along those same lines, you know, how how did you feel out there with with the new guys? You guys haven’t really been tested in the preseason now, you know, Maxi and Edgecom, the two best players that you’ve faced uh so far. So, getting that test, how do you feel like you guys did with with all the new players that you have? I thought we did good. Um obviously that the fourth quarter they made that run. Um but um for the most part we compete at a high level and obvious game we got to learn a lot from like you said like preseason uh we didn’t really face the the starters for the most part. Uh so um I mean it’s a first game for everybody so I know they’re going to get a lot better and we got to get a lot better too. Derek what got you going in the third quarter? Uh finally make a wide open shot. I mean, I felt like I was getting really good looks most of the game and I just was missing them. Um, and finally made a couple. So, that’s probably the biggest difference. And then the Nimi on that short roll, how much has he improved there and how big was he for you guys tonight? He was great. Um, just being available obviously a big target. Soft touch around the hoop as well. So, um, he did a lot of things out there for us. Mimi and Pokey. So, you’re going to need a whole year. Sleepy. Derek, on that loose ball foul on Uber, it looked like you hit the ball and the ball hit UB in the head. Was that Did you make contact or did did you think about maybe trying to get Joe to challenge that? I mean, I don’t know. I mean, I trust Joe. I trust Matt. Um, so obviously they thought I fouled him. um just trying to go make a play and obviously um pretty mad about missing the shot first of all um and it turns into like a five-point swing right there. But um I trust them completely and they obviously thought I fouled him. So um it’s a tough play. And how do you kind of get the offense in the last four or five minutes more of a at a better pace than kind of you know you had tonight? Yeah, I mean I think that’s the tough part. and you kind of you want to keep that pace that you had for the first 45 minutes. Um but you also got to execute and and know those possessions are valuable and so um just try to get pace into the set. Um kind of think couple possessions we kind of were like looking to see what we were trying to do. Um but that would just come with with more reps of what we trying to do uh how we want to execute on this possession and um but yeah pace to to get into it definitely gives us more options for uh multiple actions. Thank you. And that was Derek White. Uh postgame press conference. D White uh you know, not a bad game. 25 points. 15 threes. John, are we just That’s just Was it 15? I thought it was 13. Sorry. 13. 13 threes. But like that’s what it’s going to be. I guess that’s the norm. Yeah, that’s just how it’s going to be. I I thought 15 for a second. 13. 13’s not so bad. They’re fine. Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. We will remove this. That’s going to be the season though. That’s Yeah, as we said, uh you know, there uh more to come here. We got Bobby and Noah coming up in a little bit. Uh as we continue to talk through this, Bobby’s in the locker room uh talking to Pritchard and a few other people. So, we’ll definitely uh get to hear from those guys in a little bit. Jaylen Brown is up. We’re gonna pop in on Jaylen real quick and I will unmute him. I think just tendencies. We let Maxi get going. Um uh and we got to do a better job especially on one one of their better players on the floor. Got to be more attention to detail on him. we let him kind of play free a little bit where somebody got to, you know, make sure we can’t let that happen. Um, I don’t know if he was too focused on the offensive end, but we can’t just let guys come here and just do what they want. It felt like your guys’ pace in the third helped your defense as well. Did you notice any difference in that specifically in the fourth that could have affected things or was it mainly just the tendencies like you said? Sorry. What’s the question? if your guys’ offensive pace in the third quarter, it felt like it helped you guys get back because they were always having to take the ball out because you guys were making the shots and playing fast. Did Did you notice, you know, your pace slow down at all in the fourth quarter and do you think that had any impact on the defense? Maybe. I’m not sure. I got to watch. Uh I thought we had a good pace in the third quarter. We came out from the half um running to get up and down, make or miss, get the ball out, you know, um play with pace. Fourth quarter, um you know, maybe, you know, we slowed down a little bit. Maybe it was a little fatigue. I don’t know, first game, but we definitely want to keep our pace in the fourth quarter. I’m one of the believers that, you know, fourth quarter, you know, I know everybody thinks you got to slow down and everything, but why? We can keep playing fast. So, um, we just turn the ball over too much. I think in the fourth, that was the difference. If you if you’re playing like that, you still got to take care of the ball. So Jaylen over here, um just uh Derek was saying that the last play was designed to to go to you. Uh obviously they couldn’t get you the touch there. Just sort of, you know, how frustrating is that to not have that opportunity at the end? Um it’s tough, you know. Uh it’s tough. Definitely a winnable game for us. Um you know, we had some opportunities even at the end. and we had some opportunities that didn’t go our way. You know, it’s a learning experience. This whole, you know, it’s going to be a learning experience from day one. Um, we got a bunch of new guys. We’re playing a new style. Um, I thought we played hard today. I thought we I played a winnable game. We just, you know, some crucial errors that that cost us, you know, but I’m looking forward to watching film and and learning and staying with the journey. But, you know, that happens. you know, you know, we got a we got a new group that’s still figuring things out. Um, you know, some of these other g teams and stuff have played together for a little bit more. So, um, it’s gonna be some ups and downs, but I’m I’m looking forward to um just learning every day with the group and, uh, I’m looking forward to when we when we when we get to that point where we catch our win, what that could possibly be. And just how did you feel physically? I saw when you were on the bench that you were, you know, kind of stretching out a little bit and doing stuff. How how was the hamstring? Did you feel like you had full explosiveness? It was fine. Um, I thought it held up well. Definitely got to do some recovery within the first two weeks. You know, coming back from a strain, you got to uh make sure that you, you know, get your recovery in because that’s when the risk is at its highest. So, I’m just make sure I’m focusing on my body, getting my rest, doing my recovery, and and getting ready for the next game. Jaylen, you you just talked about all the new guys and we’ve talked a lot about getting everybody together on the same page. Meanwhile, you’re in a winnable game. You have you’re you know your skill set, Derek’s skill set. Where’s the balance of like trying to work it together, trying to get everybody together on the same page, closing out the way in a style that you guys want to play versus like I I can take over here and kind of break from maybe a little bit of what you’re trying to do. Is there is there a balance there? Is there a decision to be made there? Um, maybe. Every game is going to be different. So, you just got to, I guess, get a feel for it as we continue to go on. But, I like the shots that we got all all game. Like, we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. Um, and in the fourth quarter, um, same thing. But, you know, I believe in my guys. We had a lot of open looks right on the numbers and we and we missed them. Um, so we looking forward to that. I shoot them with confidence and um we looking forward to the next one. But um it happens, but it is a balance. But we’ll we’ll figure out more as the season goes on. Jaylen, you talked a lot at training camp about the characteristics you want this team to have to be the harder playing team, to be the smarter team, to be physical. How would you evaluate regardless of like the late game execution? How would you evaluate the identity that you guys had in this game? Do you feel like it was kind of on the marker for where you want to be? Um not bad, but not good enough. gave up too many rebounds and we played really I thought the third quarter um we played with that edge that we looking for but we got to maintain that for four quarters um yeah uh from the rebounding standpoint I think that’s the part where we got to we got to really um five guys rebounding um you know some a bunch of balls bounce over our head and things like that but it’s a 50-50 ball every time the shot goes up who want it the most and you know I got to get in there and get more get more engaged, but we got to do better on the glass cuz I think um offensive rebounds they you know we didn’t have enough and they had you know a decent amount so we got to do better. Jaylen, for the last um 10 years you’ve played knowing that you have a chance to win every night. Is this team have to kind of with building without Jason and just with so many new guys? Do you kind of have to get a new confidence? Like do you have to kind of feel better about yourselves or good about yourselves again because there’s just so many new guys you don’t know what to expect? Is that got to be rebuilt um you know this this season? It’s not going to happen now, but does it have to be built? Yeah. Uh we’ve been building it. Um, we’ve been building in training camp. Um, and obviously first game we very winnable game once again and um, we’ll we’ll learn from this. We’ll learn how to close. We’ll learn how to, you know, spots where we could be better. Um, and that’s what it’s about. Um, I’m not looking for my guys to hang our head whatsoever. Um, we just get ready for the next one going on the road for the first time. It’s going to be a good test for our group. you know, being consistent, you know, for a young player is, you know, is the testament of what the le the NBA is about. So, being able to be consistent, be able to get guys going on the road and being able to find ways to win is ultimately what it’s going to come down to. So, I’m looking forward to um to see what we’re made of, and we’re going to continue to learn and get better as the season goes on. Jaylen, Joe mentioned you started on MB defensively. Was that something you asked for and is that something that you would like to do in setting the tone? Yeah, I mean going over the last two years, I I would guard pretty much the best player night in and night out I would start on. Um so you know um no different from now. And there is Jaylen Brown. And man, you know, reading between, not even reading between the lines, but listening to Jaylen and um Derek talk, that’s just there’s some sad girls right there. Um, you know, like they know, they know. They do. They do. They know. And they know they know better than we do. They know. That’s why that to me that’s why this game actually mattered because this was a game where they a lot of the concerns that we had were clear as day and yet they were still in position to win this game. So then you could be like okay this is a building block type game where yeah we went and played great and yeah a lot of the stuff that we’re concerned about we actually manifest that into reality but damn it we found a way to win and that didn’t happen. And so now all those things that you would might have been more comfortable kind of putting to the side, things are going to get better. You’re thinking like, “Oh boy, this might be the first of many dominoes to fall like this.” Uh, this was I don’t know how you can feel good about this one if you’re the Celtics. I just don’t. Yeah, I think you got you got to take bits and pieces of it. I actually liked Simons tonight. I thought that Simons I thought that I think I texted you, John. I was like, why are they taking Simons out and putting Hower in and sure enough, what happens? They bring Hower in. He commits a foul and they pull Hower like 30 seconds later. I thought Simons did everything he needed to do tonight to to earn, you know, some additional playing time coming up here in the season. I’m not going to get into should he start, should he come off the bench? Certainly talent-wise, he’s good enough to start on this Celtics team. That that I don’t need to see anything else to believe that. It’s just a matter of if you take him off the bench, what do you have on the bench? you really have basically nothing. So, I understand what they’re doing and maybe it’s just going to be until a little bit more practice or a little bit more game reps and maybe they’ll figure out what lineups work best together. I’m sure we’re going to see some different lineups here because why not? You know, this is the year that they certainly don’t have a set lineup. You see Hower, you see you see Kada and obviously Kada I thought had a great game tonight, too. So, you got to take some bright moments from the game. Obviously, overarching it. Yeah, they blew a double- digit lead. They had this game in their grass. They let Maxi sort of take take control down the stretch. They gave up 42 points in the fourth. How I do think part of it was Sixers got hot and they were hitting threes. But Bobby said it on the show a couple of games ago. It’s like that’s their strategy is to let these teams take threes. So if that’s the strategy, then I guess you got what you wanted. Uh a Sixers team got hot. They’ve got a couple of out they’ve got some outside shooters there. Whether it’s Maxi, whether it’s UB, whether it’s this kid, um, Edgecomb now, they’ve got shooters. So, if you’re gonna allow them to do that, they’re going to take those shots. And on a night where I think Celtics shot what, 25% from three, it’s just not enough. It’s, you know, it’s not indicative of how you can try to win these games. So, um, those are some of the things that stood out to me. If you’re going to look on the positive side, I did think Simons look good. Obviously, we talked about Kada briefly. Uh I just don’t know how those guys are all going to mix in and form a a a team that’s going to be able to win games down the stretch. And it’s going to take some time. I obviously get Missoula’s got to figure out who’s going to play where and when and which lineups are going to be more effective out there. It’s not like it was the last couple years where you could easily say, “Here are my five guys. here’s some starting if they’re all healthy and we’re going to go from there. Um, so there’s a there’s going to be a lot of learning to to go here. Yeah. All right. Well, we don’t have we don’t have all we don’t have our full five yet, but we are able to work uh Bobby Manning into the mix and we’ll get him on in just a just a split second. 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Hi, buddy. Me. That’s me, Jimmy. That’s That’s right. Oh gosh. Bobby Manning, you Bobby Manning has all the fans. I’ll tell you that. How many fans have on the salmon? Yeah. Did you, Bobby? Love that. Oh, man. Where do you guys want to start with this one? Because I’m all over. Ah, you do it. I’m already tired. I don’t want to do any more games this year. Yeah. Well, load manage is ready to kick in. I’m ready to load manage this season. That’s my first takeaway is it’s a it was a fun game. They were able to build a double- digit lead and you saw them do things that you think they’re going to be good at this year. And then you saw the major weaknesses come into play. And combining those with the crunchtime execution, which I don’t think we knew what we were going to get there until we saw it, um does add a bit of concern here because you you should have won this game up 13 at the start of the fourth. Uh the defense was obviously awful late. uh the transition Joe talked about over and over and over again. But I thought the last four or five possessions or so they got bogged down. Uh things slowed. It turned back an ISO ball which you know when they were loading up on Jaylen he made a couple good plays. They were able to find Kada on like three straight possessions there give or take um when they were playing off him. But when Kada fouled out when Hower got that offensive foul and obviously the last two possessions for Pritchard there went haywire. This looked like a team that could struggle in those circumstances. And the reason that’s worrisome is you’re probably not going to be blowing many teams out. This is like a one two possession game for a lot of it. And you go on that run to go up double digits there. But in this three-point shooting league against a Maxi and some other guys there, that’s going to come down to earth a little bit. And you could be playing in crunch time almost every single night here. So, do you feel good about Jaylen in those spots? Do you feel good about Pritchard in those spots? who admitted after uh the game in the locker room that he made a bad read there. He should have passed Tiffany Simons on the first play, I believe, and then the second one he was just rushing to get a shot off. Um that’s an early mistake for him in that spot. And he wasn’t great tonight. You know, I I was sounding the Pritchard hype train on the preview show and all that. You guys who were on the Derek White hype train were the ones who were affirmed early here. And Jimmy, they did hit a couple twos tonight. I was upset. They hit two like immediately. Yeah, Bobby, as we know, um, all you have to do is be right once and then you have to demand an apology cam, right? That’s how we do it from the other people. That’s how that’s how you do it. I think that’s Yeah. Right. Well, I’m I’m excited about White. This was inspiring from him this one. We picked White. Sorry. Who’s That’s Noah. That’s the shoot. I was really wrong. Laugh. Yes, Bobby. I have white as my allNBA this year. So, yeah, we’re starting that. Noah’s Allstar. And John, did you have a white take? Yeah, he did. It was it was more of a Jaylen Brown take, but it was it was it was a white take. Well, I will say that was that was another thing that stood out for me a lot of this game is White was running the show. I mean, he he was the one on the ball. He was the one playmaking for a lot of this game and Jaylen was mostly standing to the side and letting other guys do their thing and working you know other players in. Then in crunch time it it shifted toward Brown. I don’t know how you felt about that sequence John because that is where it slowed down and it got a little more methodical. Yeah, I mean look that’s the whole thing we talked about with the pace and you know and a lot of people in the chat have been like so playing fast lasted like half a night you know like you know you kind of got was the fast one. Huh? Philly was the fast one tonight, right? I mean, but I mean, duh, you have the fastest guy in the NBA. Like, when you have Tyrese Maxi, you can play fast. It’s just literally give him the ball, let him blur down, blur his way down the court, everyone get out of the way. I mean, he’s fast. Like, I think the Celtics again, they tried early to do it. But you are who you are. Like, I mean, this whole like it’s a good philosophy because I I I think it’s a perfect philosophy. We’re not talented enough to just walk the ball up, get in a half court, and go to work. Certainly not with certain rotations. So, let’s just let’s blitz them. And again, we also we aren’t that great 7 through 11. So, let’s just play guys and turn it over fast and have guys, you know, rested with a lot of energy getting in there. I I get it. I get it. But skill matters, right? You know, and like that’s kind of what it’s going to come down to is ultimately particularly at the big man position. I mean, you saw the lack of talent there. Can guys hit shots? Can your gu can your guards defend? Again, you’ve lost, you know, you’ve lost, you know, some of your better defense, I mean, some of your better overall team defenders, you know, Tatum being able to guard almost any position on the floor and obviously Holiday uh and Porzingis as a rim protector. And so now you’ve got Pritchard on an island against these, you know, super athletic guards here. I mean, it’s going to be challenging all over. There’s going to be a million different challenges and pitfalls that this team can face because of roster, you know, because of personnel issues. It’s going to be this way. Yeah, it’s just going to be this way. I go the big I go the big man position when you mentioned that Kada from the jump wasn’t good enough and they got him right out of there. Tilman Well, that pisses me off. I I’m going to say that right now. Tada. Tada goes in and allows one uh offensive rebound. Then he makes another great play, gets an offensive board, he goes diving to the floor on a different thing, but Joe’s already made up his mind. He’s subbing him out because God, you can’t allow a rebound. And while the sub was waiting to come in, Kada was flying all over the place, doing multiple things right, but the decision was made. He’s out. And I got to tell you, looks crazy. the whole I I’m going to get this out of my system now because I’m sorry. I like Xavier Tilman. I think he’s I like talking to him. I think he’s a good dude. I like that he got I like that he got himself in shape, but get him the f out of my regular rotation. Like this is not This cannot You only have three bigs and you lost one. This cannot do. I know. This is the problem is no matter who goes in, everyone’s g It’s like a It’s like a baseball team with a bad bullpen. Everybody comes in, you’re like, “Ugh, that guy like it was a revolving.” So, and you’re right, Joe. Like, they poke Kate out over one rebound. Tilman comes in and they did the same to him after an extended stretch. Um, they pulled their big after the first three offensive rebounds Philly got. And it wasn’t like they were doing a parade to the rim and grabbing rebounds every single possession. I thought they held up decently there. Joe just had zero tolerance from it. And that, you know, that’s an immediate second guess to me, John, from the press conference. We should have asked about the the rebounds and why he was so tough on that in particular. I think we know what he would have said. But to have a zero tolerance policy on any offensive rebounds, I I know it’s going to be a weakness for this team and they got to figure that out, but they’re going to give up offensive rebounds and you have three big men. So, what are you just gonna rotate in and out all game? I want to stop. I just don’t play them. Play other people and just live with me. And that’s what they did late. They played three guards late. Play the three guards. Like, please play the Bobby, you and I had this disagreement when the show before the thing. And you’re like, I’d go Buché. And I’m like, no. Play the best players you have and hope for the best. Like, don’t worry about what you want. Oh, I like double big. That’s fine, but not but not on this team. Double you can you I don’t even want to play single big on this team, you know? Like, forget double big here. I think that that’s insane with this roster. Who are you going to play? Kada and Tilman. Kada and BO Garza. Like, I can’t do it. Bobby, hold on. You’re going to take a powder for a split second. We’re going to get you. We’re going to get you out of there. We’ll bring you back in. We’re going to work in Noah. Guys, this is our problem. It’s just a shortage of of of players. No matter who you’re bringing in, you’re gonna find issues with them. And that’s what happens with not great teams, right? That’s where we’re stuck. That’s where we’re stuck. It it is. But to me, if you’re the Celtics, it’s like your choice is basically which poison pill are you going to take? Uh, are you going to play guys who are more skilled and talented but aren’t going to get you a damn rebound because they’re too small? Or are you going to play your bigs who in theory should be able to help you on the boards, but they’re not really good at it. You’re not you’re you’re screwed. No matter which way you decide, no matter which way you go, you’re screwed. Yeah. And this is this isn’t a revelation. We we knew this months and months and months ago, right? All off season, we said, “What are they going to do at the center position?” Like, they they don’t have a center. And again, not a knock on the centers on this team, but they’re just I guess there it is a bit of a knock on them. It’s a knock on everyone who didn’t think it was a big deal. Sure. And again, I mentioned Kate. I I thought Kate had a a strong, but is he a guy that is he a guy that I always get Noah. I always get her. Well, did they get the warning? Did you Did they get the warning? Is he a guy that’s gonna be able to give you 30 minutes a game every night? No, probably not. He’s still got foul troubles. He’s still kind of all over the place. He’s going to drive you crazy at times. But to your point, John, there’s nobody else coming. There’s nobody else coming in that you want to come in if he’s coming out. So, yeah, why not play your Why not play your guards? Why not play your swings a little bit more? Why not just get Again, you if you’re Joe, you got to get creative. I think Simons is a guy that if as long as as long as they don’t trade him, I think he is a guy that’s going to end up with a much bigger role here because he can just straight up play ball. Yeah. You know, he can shoot, he can dribble. I thought his defense was fine tonight. I actually thought that he was making a point to play defense tonight and I think that he’s going to earn more and more time as we go along here. Yeah, he made some points I didn’t think he would make. So, it was I I thought he he was solid defensively tonight. Mhm. Bringing bringing in here Noah uh joining Bobby and we’re we’re going to talk about all our third centers right now. What do what do you guys got? That third center left the left the house. I I don’t No, everyone’s all right. Everyone played a good game. Good. Maybe it was good. When you follow out, it’s tough. Listen, I mean, I’m not saying it was a perfect game, but I think he had a good game. All the centers were terrible, you Well, that’s what John just said right before you came on is he was active in the opening minutes there and Joe pulled him right off the floor. And I wish we actually asked Joe why he had a zero tolerance policy on giving up any offensive rebounds. It felt like I don’t know that that’s for sure what happened. You think they were just cycling guys I mean at the end of the day he fouled out so I’m not I’m not too upset about him not playing more in the first quarter. Um if anything you know looking back at a few of those fouls like are those things that he can fix? I thought he gave them I mean when he took out of the game they had they were in control and so he gave them like that above the rim presence that I think we want to see from him. Um he wasn’t perfect but for his debut game as the right now starting center of the Celtics I thought he was one of the guys that actually had a better showing. In the first four minutes on the court is not good if if you’re a center. Uh particularly when you’re playing a Sixer team whose great center is anything but that. Uh, so it was interesting. They put Brown on Embiid. They Yeah, I I think Bobby, you could have guarded Embiid. I was going to say, yeah, it was all jump shots. That was a smart game plan. I mean, Embiid didn’t hurt them. It was the speed on the perimeter. It was the transition. It was the shot making. And you said it on our preview show. It was going to be about Maxi. I mean, he just blew everybody away. every time they play the Celtics. I don’t know if anybody has the the Maxi over the last two or three years against Boston. I feel like every time he laces up against the Celtics, he’s the greatest player. Here’s a second guess. He had five fouls and they couldn’t get him out late. Yeah, that’s tough. Um, they were mismatch hunting, but they had to figure out some better way to minimize his impact. As far as edgecomb goes, I mean, I don’t know what you could have done there. He he just kept getting in position to score whether it was in transition or just finding cracks in the half court. I mean that scoring total just kept going up up up up 25 and less than three quarters and those are basically the two guys who hurt you. And I was saying this um on the text thread. White and and Brown were really the only offensive engines for Boston, too. So they ended up pretty one-dimensional between two guys creating offense. Yeah. Yeah, and I think you got a little bit of a burst from Anthony Simons off the bench. You got a little bit from Peyton Pritchard, but he was I think he was 0 for six from three until he hit that late one off the Tilman offensive rebound. So, you’re going to want you’re going to need more from him on a night in night out basis. And I feel like he was pretty hard hard on himself postame, but understandably so. Like I think he felt like he just made the wrong decision on that final play, which you don’t actually hear guys say as explicitly. So, he said it was supposed to be for Brown, right? And they just couldn’t get it to him. Yeah. But then he said that when he got the ball that he missed Sam Hower and Anthony Simons both being open for better looks he had collapsed. Yeah. Yeah. But again like you’re going to need a lot of guys to play better. But at the end of the day they were very much in control of this game for most of the game and in position to win this one. Like we were you know I was sitting next to you the whole game. We were thinking like okay this was they look good. Like this is an impressive performance. I like a lot of the stuff. Yeah. And so I you know I don’t want to say like I caught the the tail end before I joined here. Obviously, there’s going to be there’s a lot that they need to get better at and there’s still those those front court questions. I think what’s the biggest thing that stands out that they need to get better? I mean, honestly, in this game, it was they they just did not regard I think Edgecomb and and Maxi the way they needed to. Yeah, it was it was the same kinds of things that we’ve seen in years past. Like, I don’t actually feel like they lost because of the new roster, you know, like I feel like they they were not really guarding those two guys. And especially Maxi like he he got off some clean looks down the stretch that were were kind of wild. I I’m just watching Webby highlights right now. How’s Cornett doing? I had tough foul trouble. Like the fact that we’re alive in the time of Wemby and Otani at the same time is insane right now. He’s bananas. What I will what I will say, uh, Cooper Flag, uh, scoreless in the first half, 1 for8 minus 21, two points in 21 minutes. Uh, the rookie of the I hope you got your rookie of the year I hope you got your rookie of the year bets in early and put them on Edgecomb or Ace Bailey. Um, because Edgecom was something special right now. And guys, it’s pretty interesting. This isn’t a 76ers postgame show. Uh but they got a nice little core there between obviously Maxi Edgecomb and uh and you know and and the other guy McCain when he comes back. Uh if you could just blow my mind about that team if you just didn’t have to deal with Embiid and Paul George. You’d be great and your two stars just can’t get out there. And you know what I feel like so disruptive tonight? It’s minutes limit. Does he play next game? Is George back? Is he back fulltime at that point? Like I think it’s so disruptive to have guys in and out of the lineup every single night. who’s going to play tonight, who’s showing up. That is one thing the Celtics don’t have to deal with here because again, I feel like these two teams are going to be in similar positions at the end of the year. Although, there is an upside with Philly if they’re fully healthy that you saw tonight where they could actually be a contender. Yeah, I feel like with the 76ers, if I was if I was in that front office, like how tempting is it to just go really young and just start to build around that core because they have some really exciting guards. You can’t trade and be no one. Jared McCain was was awesome last year before he went down, too. So, yeah, they’re they’re a lot of fun to watch. I Yeah, I think the Celtics were a little bit caught off guard. I think was it Pritchard that said it that they were kind of going to live with a three and then he hits five threes in this game and so that that didn’t really work out. Well, Jimmy was saying that right before I got on too, like the strategy this year for the Celtics is going to be to be more aggressive defensively and you’re going to give up a lot of threes doing that. They were out of position a lot defensively on the three-point line. And that one’s so interesting to me because this is a team that favors the three so much themselves. Like they know the power of it. They know how important that is in the modern game and for them to be willing to give up some looks out there. I know they’re trying to give it to the weaker shooters, but they gave up a lot of good looks out there today. The three maxi threes in a row were devastating. That I don’t think is the game plan. I think that’s not you know what, you know, how do they describe it as you know not understanding attention to detail, not understanding personnel. But there were some ones and I think Edgecombs was were very much the result of that game plan. Grimes won late. I mean, listen, if if this aggressive defense was always the answer, they would have done it last year too, right? like there’s an obvious downside to that approach. Um, and I think you saw it work in flashes, but not fully comprehensively. Uh, let’s get to a couple of uh super chats uh here. Yeah. Uh, and again, anybody who wants to uh throw down, hey, we love that and thank you very much. Um, Jared Scott, you know this you know the Celtics are back when they choke an 11-point lead. Ouch. Uh, ouch. They’re turning. They’re turning. Eric Palanco. Joe Joe should have focused more on his team blowing fourth quarter leads than trying to embarrass the Celtics media in a pickup game. I swear that’s not my burner. Who’s getting the most heat tonight in the chat? He didn’t. I swear. Wait, no, Bobby, you’re not ducking this one. Um, I’m just kidding. That’s not my burner. Either Joe drew up both plays for PP or he can’t draw up a play to get JB or White the freaking ball. Either way, PP shouldn’t have taken those shots. They don’t bother me. We talked about this earlier. Uh NHC77, thank you very much. And longtime listener John Harrap here. Uh glad you fellas and lady are back. Still excited for the season even with no expectations. Lady, read the second part. Soft tank should be preferred. I want t-shirts. Jimmy, make that soft tank prefer. Soft tank. John, you’re kind of like a John. You’re kind of You made shirts? Yeah, I am a shirt. I didn’t know J made shirts. He’s a shirt. By the way, Philly should yesterday. Uh just as a heads up, anybody who wants to contribute here, uh we do appreciate the super chat. So, we certainly don’t ask for them. U but if you do, the money is divvied up among the hosts. So, we do appreciate that uh very much. And no, I want to ask you uh just piggybacking just off of what Bobby’s comment was. Who’s catching the most heat? Naturally, Joe gets heat because, you know, everybody’s lowhanging fruit blames every loss on a coach. People didn’t like the Pritchard shots. That was a point of contention. Um, while people are not saying anything bad about how he played, there seems to be consensus in the chat and certainly uh the line of questioning in the interview room uh about whether Jaylen Brown looked not explosive or not physically like himself. We spent literally a third of the year talking about how Jaylen looked physically uh at the end of last season when he was battling an injury. So, we have we remember explosive Jaylen and not explosive Jaylen, but it’s been a while. Uh, did did Jaylen look right to you in terms of his ability to, you know, do Jaylen like things? He didn’t look 100%, but that wasn’t like one of my biggest thoughts out of this game. There was one play where he had a wide open lane and normally like a very healthy Jaylen Brown would dunk that and he just kind of softly laid it in. You know, part of that is conserving himself. he’s coming off of a hamstring thing that he was a game time decision ultimately. So, I don’t want to overread into that. But, I haven’t this wasn’t the kind of game where I’m like 100% Jaylen Brown’s physically back and perfect and all the knee woes and hamstring concerns or whatever all in the past. Like, it wasn’t decisive enough for me. But when Joe was asked, I think it was Mark that asked, yeah, you Joe was asked about him not being super explosive, I I kind of I knew Joe was going to answer that way because I don’t think that it was this like Gasper was hot on it. He definitely felt like he saw something for sure from It might I mean honestly my little that’s always the indicator of like we know Jaylen Brown loves to dunk. This is the home opener. He has a wide open lane and he lays it in. So he did say not overreact but it’s you know it’s data points that we have. I said it in the preseason. Uh Jimmy threw it out in our pre in our chat. Uh you know like he doesn’t look it doesn’t look like the most explosious version of himself yet. Doesn’t mean it’s gone. Um, but it it is just something I’m looking at because it’s how we ended and he had the knee injury and he’s battling the hammy and they’re being asked to play like super fast and there’s a lot going on there. You know, part of being able to play super fast is having your super fast, super athletic player be super fast and super athletic. Um, so it’s definitely something I’m keeping an eye on, but it’s not like as far as my concern level, it’s not it’s not pinned to the red. I just it’s an observation. I didn’t think he looked Yeah. you know, he looked he looked all the way there. And I I I thought it was interesting. I know you guys heard it at the end of his comment when he was asked about it saying, “I got to really focus on recovery right now.” Like the the beginning stages of this recovery process. That’s super important. So, it feels like he’s playing through it right now and trying to just manage it. The knee or the hamstring? The hamstring. And so, does it linger? Is it something that for the first couple weeks here they have a backto-back Sunday and Monday? Like I wonder if we’ll see him on both halves of that. Um because it definitely doesn’t look like he’s 100% right now. I mean with a hamstring a week’s probably a reasonable amount of time for like a lowgrade tweak, but you’re probably not, as you said, 100% coming back from it. So is he himself in a week, two weeks? Like there’s definitely going to be a period of time here where he isn’t his normal explosive self. You just hope as there often is the risk of aggravation with something you know hamstring is pretty tough and you know it’s definitely something that can just be in your mind. Have you you’ve had hamstring injuries? Not really honestly. You know you know I love to bring up my uh my high school basketball. You had every injury I feel like I I I I never had one during any period of time in my life where I would have considered myself an athlete. I had an I had an old man hammy injury, you know, but like when I was playing, I never had anything. Jimmy, I know you tweaked your hamstring. No, Sherrod. I stretch. No hamstr Noah, let let’s uh couple other things we want to talk about. Uh I want Bobby. Bobby, were you and Noah sitting near each other uh this game? Uh I’m not I’m not gonna say. Wait, what? Why aren’t you going to say inside? What’s the joke? Okay. Well, I want to know what h what Noah’s expression was when Ugo went in the game and then when he left the game. John, I was filming the whole thing. That’s a great self. Were you filming it? I have self-control, but I so badly wanted to ask Job at that moment and like why he went over to the score table, why he came back. I was like, this just isn’t appropriate for for the opening day loss. Um, but he had a good attitude about it. You know, he went over to the scores table. He looked ready to go. About a minute or two passed, then he kind of skipped back to the bench, high-fived everybody. Jaylen gave him one of these like, you know, it’s going to be okay. I’ll get your chance. So, um, no Ugo minutes tonight. So, and I know why he did it. He always says if he wants go in against someone else on the other team and if that guy comes out and he was planning to put him in against that guy, that’s what happened. Is that what happened? That’s usually what his answer is when a guy’s about to go in and comes back or a guy’s in the game for like two seconds and then comes out. There just wasn’t a stop and play for a while. And so I think but there was still 30 seconds left in the quarter. Like there maybe he wanted his debut to be more memorable than just 30 seconds. No, I think that was a sub thing. That was a really tough moment for me though. Thank you for asking, John. Well, I was I was curious because that was tough. Um, also again, it’s worth pointing out because this is something we flagged in the preseason. Um did have Shyman and Walsh uh played themselves played themselves out of a rotation and the answer like again Joe says we don’t have one. So would it be shocking if each of those guys got some run in New York and maybe other people didn’t? No, it wouldn’t be shocking but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’m I I think they’ve played their way out I think they’ve played their way out of the rotation, which is insane to me uh here. And we were joking about Shyman being in the doghouse, but like wow. Like this team’s not good enough to be abandoning well to to be abandoning Hope on their last two draft picks. I’ll say that’s one thing I’m not worried about this year. So, I hope that’s not the case. Whether they suck or not, I’m going to go I’m going back to Romeo because this is my full circle Romeo point. Oh, Liam, just shut everyone. Just say N Smith, please. Fine. I’m sad I missed the John Romeo love affair. It’s not Romeo. N Smith and Romeo were were lottery picks. They deserved to play to see whether they could play. I don’t believe Shyman and Walsh deserve to play just based on where they were drafted, late first, early second, or even early midsecond. But but you are a team that really at this point probably just needs to see what you have. And you know, you I I don’t I don’t want to freeze these guys out just because Joe doesn’t like one thing. I definitely want to I I’m not bullish on either at all. And in fact, I I I’m really convinced Walsh is not ever going to be a legitimate NBA player or rotation level player, but it’s strange to me that they would be buried the way that they are. Here’s the question, and I have I have three quick thoughts on this. One, I don’t think anyone’s going to get lost for long periods of time this season. In fact, Garza just went down tonight and who who knows how long he’s going to miss, but that’s a opportunity for someone else. And two, really for both of them, what are those guys giving you right now? Like both Shyman and Walsh, if you’re putting them in the game, what are they giving you right now? Walsh athleticism? I guess I mean, wait, what does that even mean? He gives you athleticism. What’s your question? I’m I’m asking like if you were going to put those guys case for playing those guys over the guys tonight. I don’t even know what they give you. That’s my question. Yeah, I mean it’s hard with Jordan right now because he really didn’t play last year. He didn’t really He kind of missed preseason. He had some nice moments in summer league. Like I’m a little bit less certain. I mean Baylor, we know kind of how he’s been struggling. Um I mean I didn’t have a problem with them not playing. They played 10 guys in the first 10 minutes of this game. So, they are using their bench and, you know, different matchups are going to call for different guys. But, I felt like the first 10 minutes I was not not used to seeing that many subs. You know, it was clear what Joe had been telling us about that fast rotation and kind of going deeper was going to happen, but those guys are are not in the first 10 guys in the rotation at the moment. You know, they’re probably like 12 and 13. Um, and so it’s gonna probably require some injuries or, you know, if Josh Minard doesn’t do anything for his first seven games as a Celtic and is not really giving them a whole lot, then Joe’s gonna give another guy a chance. But I do think like training camp and preseason have kind of bumped those two guys down, which we kind of saw coming into this opening game. I thought Minot was good enough tonight, too. In fact, that’s if you were going to pick one guy who you will probably want to see a little more of in this game, it was it was probably him. Yeah. No, I thought he had some nice moments. um what they’re going for. Like they’re going for that steal. They’re going for that deflection. I feel like sometimes they were a step slow, like they were a step behind and it’s just a matter of like better chemistry and kind of coming together more. But I I got the I saw the vision of what they’re trying to do on multiple occasions and he was at the forefront of that. Like there were a couple moments where Yeah. where he almost had that highlight play, then he just didn’t have it quite. But I like the idea of what he was going for. Um especially on the defensive end. Um yeah, I mean this was a perfect this game to me was just a perfect case study of their margin of error is just so much thinner now. Um and to be honest with you, like how many games have they lost even when they were fully stacked when they were up by 11 in the fourth quarter? Like we’ve seen this before. This is not anything groundbreaking. And if Peyton makes that final shot, we’re spending this whole show focusing on all the things that went really well in this game, which I do think that there were there was a lot to like. But there yeah, there’s just the What did you like the most? F. I asked Peyton that question and he he also struggled to answer. I think to be honest with you, I actually thought that Nimi gave them gave them enough. Not Derek. Derek, I don’t know. I just I feel like I I don’t want to take Derek. Kada is a bright spot. Hey, yeah. To me, Kada is such a such a question mark for this season. And if he can give you that, but be a little bit more disciplined, like maybe take away one of the illegal screens, stay out of foul trouble, and be able to close this game out, they probably win this game. I mean, that that might have been the difference right there. So Kada was a bright spot, not like an A+, but he he was a bright spot. Um I mean we Derek’s offensive initiation like we kind of already know what he’s capable of. So I only say Derek because he reached a level in that third quarter. And when did they win the third by like 17 like I think it was 358. That was the quarter where you’re like all right this is what it can look like. And he was leading the ch block at the rim pushing the ball the other way initiating most of their offense in that quarter. Like I almost he gets to a level sometimes where you’re like is this guy a borderline star? Like that’s where it gets to sometimes. And if that’s gonna be there on many nights that does make you feel a little bit better about this team because it doesn’t have to be the Jaylen show and Pritchard doesn’t have to go off every night. Is a borderline star? No. White. Who? White. Oh, thank God. Okay. I’m saying the bright spot from this game for me was white. Wait, did you think he was talking about Nim John? John just tuned me out again. I was looking at web clips again. This is but this is the Derek White narrative though. He has flashes of being incredibly awesome and then we kind of forget that he’s out there or he’s literally out there and he talked about that in training camp. His big thing this year is be consistent. And that’s for a lot of guys on this team. It It is. But but but here’s the thing though. A lot of guys on this team don’t have the ceiling that Derek White does. A lot of guys on his team don’t have the ability to be the best player on the floor for three, four, five minute stretches and completely disappear for five, six, seven, eight minute stretches. And his consistency, again, that’s that’s the only real knock I think you can make on Derrick White’s game. He’s just not consistent enough. Uh, and I thought this game was very indicative of the biggest issue most people have with Derrick White. uh you know third point wasn’t consistent though just his shot making his shot making wasn’t consistent enough his defense wasn’t consistent enough uh and again to those two points he had a stretch where he was making every damn shot he was doing great things defensively that block shot was awesome and that’s and that’s the thing about Derrick White that is both a blessing and a burden to him he shows you enough good things to where you know he can be a really really great top tier allstar caliber player And there are stretches where he doesn’t do that where he’s there’s a tremendous drop off from when Dererick is at his best and when he’s not. And that’s and that’s difficult. And that’s difficult when your best player on any given night because Derek was the best player tonight. It wasn’t Jaylen. That could change on Friday. It could be Jaylen running the show for the whole night. He feels great a couple days later and he’s and then Pritchard, you know, was running the show on Sunday. So, it’s going to be by committee in a lot of different areas on this team. And that’s the conversation we had going into tonight. you know, not totally related, but the rotation thing. It’s great that you can have different guys chipping in in different moments, but you almost reimagine yourself every single night with this team because stuff’s going to be all over the place. Yeah. The one thing I’ll say is I I feel like one of the kind of continued thoughts that I had was that they had no answer for Tyrese Max and they had no answer for Edgecom. And that’s not really Derrick’s like best matchup. those kinds of quick guards like that that has been an ongoing what Derek’s going to tell uh Noah to STF. Yeah, we don’t like to talk about guys struggling with quick guards. That I upset I upset Marcus Smart by saying that about him. That’s my guy. Marcus Smart. Everybody took it out. He took it on. Be careful. You might be You might be an No, we’re not scared of Derek White. We We want Noah’s opinion. We We want Noah’s true opin. Yeah, he’s a sweetheart. We love Derek. We love Did we talk to him tonight? Yeah. Well, you What was his demeanor? It was fine. I think that I think the team in general just feels like it was right there, you know? Um and and this is I feel like I’ve gathered this more like being a member of the media than beforehand, but like literally the entire story now becomes all the things that went wrong, which is fair because that was the final outcome, but they were right there. I mean, they they literally I I think you you you boil the game down to like three miscommunications on defense on Tyresese Maxi. This this game doesn’t even go down to the wire and they battled and you know, Pritchard hit that three. I thought that was a great play by Xavier Tilman to fight for that board and even give them that chance. And I liked the quick two. Like there were some things like we’ll talk about how the execution down the stretch was not great, but they actually did some things pretty well as well. You know, the 76ers won four of six in the line. That’s like not crazy bad. Um they had 13. I think there was this feeling of like, damn, like we had that one. That was everybody’s demeanor. That was J’s demeanor. That was the vibe in the locker room, like you know. Yeah. No doubt. I But my my my Noah, tell me if you if you disagree. Uh, but my vibe with Jaylen’s press conference and Derek White’s and just listening to them talk in general is they know like what this is and they were like, “Yeah, well, you know, like, yeah, we got to do better.” Like I mean it’s not like you know I don’t know cuz cuz I think everybody realizes they know what John what what this is who they are what this team is like we’re we’re going we’re not that good and so we got to see how it’s going to go you know but they it’s almost like they’re like resigned to their fate. That’s that’s what they sound like. I didn’t I didn’t get that feeling at all. I don’t think you can say that one. We all We all did in the chat just in this room. But but yeah, I I would say that was not the feeling. Oh, you didn’t, Jimmy. And then then when I say we all, I just mean me. Keep the faith, Jimmy. Well, here’s the thing. Here’s what I’ll say. I don’t think they’re resign real quick. I don’t think they’re resigned to their faith. But I mean, obviously they’re disappointed with how things went out. And to your point, John, I’m not saying they can’t get that won’t happen at some point in the season. I don’t think after game one that they’re like ready to throw on the towel. I think they’ve been there for I think they’ve been there for weeks, Jimmy. But that’s that’s my that’s my opinion. So I I I felt the general and I talked to Simons too after this one. Like I felt a sim generally down demeanor after this one. Even Joe was like, “Yeah, you really can’t screw up in those areas and that’s what cost us. We’ll figure it out.” I I don’t think it was a despair yet. But I’ll say this, they got the Knicks on Friday. That’s going to be an uphill battle even with the injuries that the Knicks have. They have the Pistons on Sunday who are pretty good. They got the Pelicans who, you know, have Zion on Monday. Like every game Cavs the next Wednesday, you know, not they’re all los. I know. And they’re all winnable, too. Like I said, there’s a lot of there’s going to be a lot of 50/50s on their schedule, but that’s why when we’re looking every night’s going to be 50/50. You don’t know. You don’t know which way it breaks because they’re not good enough to just play their best and win, you know. Um, and an off night is a loss. And, uh, even good night, that’s what kills me about this one. You had it. Like, you’re up 13 at the start of the fourth. You probably should close that game. Like, you got to take these ones. You’re going to lose some nights. You’re not going to have enough. You’re not going to have enough players. Like, that stuff’s going to happen throughout the flow of the year. Embiid gave them nothing tonight. George didn’t play. you’re at home, you gotta take that one. And again, we’re not gonna sit here at the end of the year and go, “Oh man, if they won this game and that game, they would have won the title.” But if we’re thinking that this year is going to be better than we expect, and we both do, these are the kind of games you got to win. Yeah. Uh closing thoughts? Uh Jimmy, you got anything? Um yeah, I would say I wasn’t completely surprised by how this one went tonight. Um, I was hopeful that Celis could win the home opener, but um, ultimately I think talent does play out and win out and I think that fourth quarter really showed what some of the struggles that they’re going to run into later in the season. Um, I my two bright spots were Kada and Simons and I said earlier on the show, you like Simons? Yeah, I did. I thought Simons was a top five player tonight for them. Um, played both wayed both ends. I thought he had a couple couple big shots in the second half. He had a nice move to the basket um at a point where they really needed one. I think it put him up either seven or nine, I forget at the time. He had some little defensive plays throughout too that I thought and yeah, I thought effort-wise he he was like per playing with a purpose on defense. So, he gets one of my bright spots, but ultimately little bit little bit of dysfunction on that Celtics uh on the court tonight late in the game. And I think it comes down to execution and if you just don’t have enough talent late in the game, you’re going to come up short more often than not. I will say if you if you didn’t know narratives or reputation going into this game, you wouldn’t walk away from this one saying Anthony Simons is a terrible defender. He did nothing about his defensive efforts on in so if we’re if we’re looking for bright sides, I think that’s that’s definitely I was thinking that the whole game like he’s really competing on that end. You could see that he was so locked into it and Joe kept high-fiving him when he had he made good plays and it was obvious. It was it was interesting too. I talked to um Walker this morning who played with him for kind of an innocuous teammate, but he was like, “Oh man, I was watching him the preseason. I had to text him right away and be like, “Your defense is way better now than it was.” So like that actually is something people keep talking about. And I keep hearing too the the environment’s better here. I know you’ve said that too, but I just keep hearing that from players and coaches when it comes to Simon. So maybe there is hope that this change of scenery does make that big of a difference for him. Uh Sherrod, you got anything? Yeah, Simons was my guy tonight. Uh, and it was mainly because of just the point that you guys made about his defense. I mean, he had a play where he was back in transition and not only did he not give up a layup, he forced the ball out of bounds. Uh, and they didn’t get the possession, he prevented an easy layup that otherwise is probably a three-point play where he picks up the foul. So, I thought he did a lot of really good things. And the center by committee, uh, they didn’t suck. I mean, let’s be honest, they weren’t great, but you look at what Kimi gave you. You look at Tim gave you some some positive play and Garza, you know, before he got out set a great screen that look gave Derrick White a great three that he knocked down. So, you know, those are the positives. Yeah. I also liked um how genuinely excited Bill Chisum looked uh on this sideline. He was I’m not kidding. He was really into it. I like that. I like to see that. I like to see that fire. I really do. I was Wick here. He was. Yeah, Wick was there. Pierce was in the building, too. Paul Pierce. Wick. Wick’s getting the PGs treatment, though. He’s got the sideline excitement rankings. Pierce, Wick, Bill. Bill was at the top by far. Bill was Bill. I was actually extremely locked into the sideline rankings. Yeah, Bill. Bill was jacked and pumped. He was really into it. I actually like to see the whole family, too, you know. They were into it, man. They were really into it, which is good. uh you know so uh yeah you know just double down on all of that. Kada that’s a big question mark even though Joe yanked him early which was a rotational thing. Look I like his skill. Look like I said Kada to me has always been like you know poor man’s Rob in the sense that like he can do some things at a at a high level that nobody else on the team can do. And sometime you’re gonna have to live with the stuff that kills you, which is, you know, some of the stuff with the pick and rolls, being out of position, the weird setting screen, you know, the the the lack of discipline setting screens, getting off his feet, the fouls. Like, it’s not perfect, but he’s the only he’s the only he’s the only hope they have there. So, just ride it. Let him get better. Let him learn. Let him take his lumps. That’s the whole thing is this is what’s going to be tricky. It’s not a type of team where you’re like, play the kids and let them get better because you just don’t have them. But there’s certain people who like if you ha if you have to project out a year or two from now, you’re probably going to need Kada to be a player for you. So just let him let him play and learn. Benching a guy 3 minutes in for not grabbing a rebound is silly to me. Like if it’s a if there’s a long if there’s a long con here, which is this is going to make you better tomorrow and the next day, fine. I can live with that, too. But I do I am very interested in h how obsessed. This is why we’re like in this weird place with people talking about if they could just hold the line and be around the five or the six and then Tatum comes back and they can make a run and they can make some noise. I just wish we could just look at I just wish we could look at this as a lost season and decide what you can pull from the wreckage moving forward and then come out of you know from you know from the ashes next year with Tatum a draft pick and then whatever you found in some of the players who you’ve given opportunities to that might actually be able to help you. But like if you’re obsessed with winning tonight or winning this game at the expense of any sort of player development or you know like to me it’s take some lumps and let people grow and then and then shrug your shoulders at the wins and the losses. I don’t think it’s the most important thing on this team this year. And so that’s why I want to not I want to not get in the way of it. That’s all. I got I got one more question. Do you think like two weeks in, three weeks in, we’re going to have a good feel of where this is going? Not necessarily. I mean, certainly a better feel like I think we we we’re learning a little bit about this team every day, but um it’s still it’s still going to be early in the season and I think they have a tough schedule to start. So, it’s going to it’s probably not going to be as good early on as it might turn into, but I think I agree with that. But let’s see. Stinks to lose a guy tonight. Stinks that Brown starting the year banged up. Stinks to lose this game again. You were in a stinks that this drill is going on right now, too. I think we I think we’ve hit exactly our point of where we’re going to wrap it. Um, all right. We’re off to New York with the perfect timing. Noah and Bobby are off to New York. So, you can definitely uh check them out there. We’ll be back with the Garden Report on Friday. I do want to let you know if you download that Prize Pick app, our sponsor over here at the Garden Report. Prize Pick, number one daily fantasy sports app in all of North America. Download the Prize Pix app, use code CLNS, get 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Also, go get yourself some steak at omahastaks.com. Use the code Patriots at checkout. Get an additional 35% off in addition to a 50% sitewide sale. You can’t go wrong with that. Also, if you like WNBA coverage, I know the season is over. You can subscribe to our WNBA YouTube channel, also over on Apple and Spotify. That is driven largely by Noah Dzel, who might have some extra extra content coming on there, too. double dipping uh so to speak. So, we should have some good stuff there. So, make sure that you check that out. And thank you guys for watching. Thank you to Sherrod. Thank you to Jimmy. Thank you to Noah. Thank you to Bobby. Good to be back. Good to have you all here uh on the Garden Report with us. Celtics do lose. It happens. They’re back at it Friday. Revenge game against the Knicks who knocked them out in the second round of the playoffs last year. Mo, I know you’re going to be there, buddy. Mo. Yeah, I love Mo. Mo’s there. Mo’s alive. New York. Jury’s still out for me on Mo. Mo, where are we meeting? Joe’s Pizza in Williamsburg or Joe’s Pizza in Manhattan. Where are we going? Let’s go to Let’s go to one of them. We’ll meet you down there. Don’t go to Cat’s Del. Come on, dude. Are you kidding? Cats is incredible. Yeah, but it’s like the most basic. It’s like it’s not the most basic. You can’t you can’t get that anywhere else. You really can’t. No, but I mean it’s like the most it’s the most basic recommendation. I mean like Yeah. John, you’re not a John’s guy. But it’s still the best. What does that mean? John’s a bleeaker. Oh, I know that. The pizza place. That’s a good one. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I go to Joe’s a lot because I stay in Williamsburg and they have one there. Oh, you’re on the Brooklyn side. It’s one It’s one stop over from uh from where we go on Bedford Street. So, we we pop there uh a lot. Uh I’ll tell you, I think you recommended a Greek place a couple years ago when I went down there and it was ah this world. So, I’m going to I’m going to grab something from you. Also, Lindustree, another place in Brooklyn, also in Williamsburg. Terrific. Uh slice shop. Anyway, uh thank you guys for hanging out. We will see you. I don’t know if Amit went to work on a new outro. He did a new intro, but we Oh, he’s got it. This might be new. Oh, wow. Okay. [Music]

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36 comments

  1. wow another year another string of endless 3s how boring . People who think Jaylon brown was better than Tatum will have a whole year of reality to see how much pressure tatum took off brown . I really hope the Cs can take even more 3s than last year (great coaching strategy) its unwatchable

  10. I think Brown had an average night which is good in a sense that even without Tatum, which makes Brown other team’s priority to defend and he still put up 25. I feel like the guards should assume more of a playmaker role and not Brown. Saying he has to play better to win is true but at the same time, you can’t expect brown to score +30 or +35 to win. I don’t want to blame anyone but the fact that Queta was our 3rd best scorer it really shows how bad the rest of the team is offensively. Houser only scored 8, Pritchard 16 and Simmons 17. They should be able to score way more than that.

  12. The thing I hate most about this game is everyone saying "We were right. This team will miss the playoffs. Play-in team at best". It's one game. You idiots will still be proven wrong by the end of the year.

  16. This team doesnt rebound because it was built on a false premise of positionless basketball. This is not on Mazulla. We all need to look at the hard truth that Stevens is responsible for all of this. 1. Why fire Ime? He had them playing defense, rebounding, and running discernible sets2. Why value switchability over all over rebounding? This issue is even bigger in the playoffs when they let lessor defenders hold on the perimeter. 3. Why extend an unqualified coach?

  18. Owners want us to be bad and acted accordingly this summer, so they can tell the fans in 3 months time : "what s the point in paying the tax for a mediocre team?" They ll even try to make it sound like it s just common sense to make us forget they made it happen.
    Joe s task in that context is to showcase the players we want to part ways with in order to achieve the "regain maximise" thing.

  22. I've been posting on the kings locked on videos. There are a few bigs to look at still. Bol bol doesn't make sense since Boucher is similar. However, there is mo bamba. Precious isn't really a big but would help. I understand luxury tax but they can cut someone at the end of the roster for one of them.

  23. As I glanced at this game reminiscing about the Bird era I almost immediately turned it off. Not only is this team unwatchable, the style is unwatchable. Today's game is a slow slog of four corner spread it out shoot three's with zero low post play. Not one starter could play with the 86 lineup except White who would've come off the bench, forget Brown who takes some of the craziest turnaround fall away off balance jumpers I've ever seen. Hugo Gonzalez should play all the time, he at least has real basketball instincts. Today's NBA is awful basketball, it's basically glorified pick up basketball, this is embarrassing, they can keep it

  25. Fun first game despite the loss.And high quality basketball discussion on here as always.
    Thought the analysis/ discussion about Celts matching up with quick guards was particularly on point.
    Edgecombe and Maxey are terrific young players so no shame in losing to them.But would be really nice if the Celts could add a Davion Mitchell or Gary Payotn Jr type to the.bench.A smaller really quick defensive minded guard could be really helpful for matchups like tonight or Brunson in game 4 last year.

  28. ⁠facts people don’t watch the game dude played great on both ends dude olayed great defense on embiid and everytime brown switched on maxey he passed it and stop it jb was creating greak look after great look and playmaking great like brown could of had 10 assist literally the hate this man get is crazy dude did everything right didn’t turn over the ball and scored efficiently and playmake great brown should keep looking to do what ever the team need like the sixer was outing 3 to 4 people unlike Tatum he didn’t settle for 3 due took on the 3 people and passed well.The only thing I would say is don’t let white take more shots than you and if you got to Reggie miller people off you to get the ball

  30. my takeaways

    positives: derrick, queta is good enough on offense, simons looks good, and i dont mind how JB played

    negatives: defense, bench scoring, hauser in the starting lineup? id just roll with boucher.

    idk not super upset, but a little annoying that we lost.

  32. Let's look at the big picture. This is a team of end of bench guys taking prominent roles and literally every other player learning how to be most effective in a new role whilst all learning each other and a new system. The fact they came out and looked like the more cohesive, together and better executing team overall is an incredibly great sign.

    Despite all the Joe haters.. He has done an amazing job getting a these guys ahead of the curve. We can pick a bunch of shoulda coulda wouldas from coaching decision to player decisions and execution – this, everyone being on the same page and playing cohesively this early is by far the biggest thing.

    NO COACH who had an under talent team got their guys running out the gates. Look at spoe, carlisle. Their teams start slow typically and then they find their footing in the second half of the year. Usually its super ugly to start because the team is janky and the roles aren't established. We seem to have that figured out.

    Give it time. I would much rather see the team playing how they did and lose vs seeing JB and DW go for 74 to save what was a bad performance from the team.

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